A true feast of high school art

FROM sculptures to drawings, photographs to embroidery – these are some of the artworks you will find at the Belgravia Art Centre until next week Monday.

The art centre is exhibiting artworks by pupils from high schools around East London.

Beautiful artworks adorn the floor, stage, walls and ceiling of the centre – these were all made by pupils from Alphendale, Cambridge, Hudson Park, Stirling, Selborne, Clarendon, Merrifield, Queen’s College, Queenstown Girls High and Stutterheim High School.

Belgravia Art Centre principal Terry Schultz said the artworks submitted improved every year.

She said the city had a lot of talent and it was very important to create platforms where pupils could showcase their work.

“Together with the eisteddfod, the annual East London High School Art Exhibition has been one of the city’s major school exhibitions since the ’80s and the artwork just gets better every year. The level of experimentation and technical ability and concepts are of a very promising and high standard for school art,” Schultz said.

Some of the popular artworks included an impressive welded metal assemblage at the entrance of the exhibition hall by Hudson Park Grade 12 pupil Stephen Page.

Another is a ceramic self-portrait bust by Selborne College Grade 11 pupil Barry Vincent and creative stopframe animations by a group of pupils from Merrifield Preparatory School.

Vincent said it took him about 10 weeks to complete his bust.

He said he and his fellow schoolmates were hoping to get their school to adopt the culture of awarding pupils with colours for artwork chosen and displayed at the exhibition.

Vincent said the annual exhibition was a great platform for pupils to showcase their artwork and he had enjoyed making his bust for the exhibition.

“We, as the pupils at Selborne, are trying to get our school to adopt a culture encouraged by other schools where pupils are awarded or can earn school colours for their artwork – to get some kind of acknowledgement for the work we do.

“A lot of hard work and time goes into making some of the pieces. It was great being part of this year’s exhibition, it is always great to see what other pupils at other schools are doing and just to enjoy the variety of art on display,” he said.

The artwork is graded by adjudicators and awarded double gold, gold, silver, bronze or merit awards.

The exhibition is open to the public daily from 8.30am to 3pm.